BIRDS OF A FEATHER : Audi RS6 & RS7

An estate and a coupe-sedan with massive power, four-seats and a boot. They have sportscars (and aircrafts) in their crosshairs. What are they like to drive

WORDS  by  OUSEPH CHACKO

PHOTOGRAPHY  by  GAURAV S THOMBRE

LOCATION COURTESY: OXFORD GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

With a crisp salute, the security guard lets us on to the private runway. He’s got a register and swears there are no planes in the sky above or around us and I hope he’s right. Either way, both our cars can easily out accelerate a plane from standstill and, with a few ticks on the expensive options list, match the landing speed of a Boeing 737. Not that Boeings use this runway – it’s mostly Cessnas and Robinsons; so no worries then. Although we may have to outrun aviation in our ground bound weapons, if we happen see a pair of landing lights in the rear-view mirror. So, line up down the centreline, gearlever in ‘S’, foot on the brake, mash the throttle … and … let rip. The g-force is incredible – I can feel my Levis grate against the Alcantara seat back – and with Quattro-assisted traction, the RS6 bolts off the line like a scalded cat. Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, 286kmph on the clock as the end of the runway fills up the windscreen at an alarming rate. Sirish starts punching the imaginary brake in the left footwell while I get real with the anchors. The serving- dish sized, cross-drilled and ventilated discs bring us to a negative g-force halt, well before we get in to four-wheel drive country at the end of the runway. Sirish lets out a gasp. This thing is incredible!

Method in the madness?

You can’t help but wonder about the kind of people who buy cars like the RS6 and RS7. I suppose the Avant buyer is someone who has a dog that’s addicted to speed, likes to move house fast (1680-litres of boot space with all rows down) and enjoys scaring the living daylight out of the passengers in his load-lugger. The Sportback buyer? Well, he’s about the same except his family packs lighter, don’t crib about headroom and have the packers and movers on speed dial. One thing is for certain, drivers of both have strong stomach linings. Both will blitz to 100kmph in just 3.9 seconds and both have a standard top speed limit of 250kmph. If you tick a slightly expensive box, you get tires with a higher speed rating and a limit raised to 280kmph.If you tick the more expensive box, you get even better tyres and 305kmph! In four-door cars! That’s fairly ridiculous isn’t it? Sensible, diesel-saloon people ask, where’s the space to do those kinds of speed or use that kind of power in India. To their sceptical faces I tell them it’s not about the speed or the violence, it’s about the utter effortlessness that so much torque brings,and the joy of experiencing serious g-forces. It’s about the practicality of four seats, enough boot space and the need to share that ‘knot-in-thestomach’ feeling with your friends and family. It’s about grip that’s utterly ridiculous. In any case, on the other end of the scale, Mercedes-AMG and BMW M have already unleashed 550bhp off-roaders on the unsuspecting public and in that light, a nutty estate and sportbackcoupe- saloon almost make perfect sense don’t they?

Running wild

A fast estate? Makes no sense does it? Yet the first RS badge (that is Audi’s equivalent of AMG or M Division) was slapped on to the boot of an estate. The RS2 Avant was developed by Porsche (yes, Porsche!) and ranks as one of the true icons of Audi’s back catalog.

And Audi has stuck with tradition, first offering the Avant body style on a new RS model and then following it up with a sedan or Sportback or whatever. In fact, some RS models only got an Avant body style, like the previous generation RS4. As for the RS6 the previous generation stands out for one outrageous reason – under the hood nestled was a V10 engine pinched from Lamborghini!

The new RS6 Avant takes the downsizing route, the motor scaled down by a two cylinders and one whole litre, yet the power output has hardly diminished. The engine, shared with the RS7, is a 4-litre, twin-turbo V8 that makes 553bhp and 700Nm of torque. The two cars also share the same gearbox – the ZF eightspeed torque converter – because Audi doesn’t have a twinclutch transmission that can take so much twisting force without lunching itself. Acceleration, in either car, is brutal, and that’s putting it mildly. Even when you’re motoring at triple-digit speeds, stabs on the throttle result in an immediate and alarming jump in numbers on the speedometer, no matter what revs you’re at.

Peak torque plateaus at 1750rpm and stays there till 5500rpm at which point the baton is passed to 553bhp and there’s an absolutely terrifying rush to the redline. It’s so effortless that, on a light throttle, both cars will stealthily run up to around 180kmph in eighth gear. On a public road! I apologise, it was the car’s fault and I haven’t broken the law ever since! But, what I mostly found myself doing in the higher gears, was lifting off for no apparent reason – I think my mind kept rebooting itself.

The tremendous rate of acceleration is matched by an absolutely hair-raising exhaust baritone and followed by pops and crackles on the overrun. Audi, what an engine this is! And, the ZF gearbox is so quick and responsive, you never miss a twin-clutch system.

Interestingly, both cars feature a cylinder deactivation system that shuts off four-cylinders when you’re cruising and this helps improve fuel efficiency from shockingly dismal to just dismal. You can’t tell when the cylinders shut off or cut in again, so that’s good.